“After the bomb blast that wounded eight
novice monks, the following day local authorities and community leaders went to
the area and uncovered more than twenty mines near the temple,” Nang Kham Phong,
a local aid worker in Namtu, toldShan
Herald on Thursday.

“The mines were buried east of Zeya
Sukha Temple in Mong Yen Tract, Namtu Township,” said Nang Kham Phong. “They
have now been moved to the local military office.”

Many years ago, the Burma military
set up positions in this village. When they withdrew from the area the
villagers reclaimed their lands.

According to an official from the local
administration, authorities suspect there could be many more devices planted in
and around Mong Yen. He said that that the landmines may have been planted in a line, but
otherwise they had no idea how to locate them. He said that the local
administration could not be the ones to take responsibility for this.

Burmawas ranked third most dangerous
country in the world for landmines in 2014 behind only Colombia and
Afghanistan, according to the Landmine and
Cluster Munition Monitor, a research andmonitoringarm of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL).

Areport from the Landmine and Cluster
Munition Monitor published in November 2016reads: “In September 2016, Deputy Minister of Defense
Maj-Gen Myint Nwe informed the Myanmar parliament that the army continues to
use landmines in internal armed conflict.At
the same session, a Member of Parliament from Shan State stated that ‘it can’t
be denied that non-state armed groups are also using landmines…particularly
since 2012.’”

According to an ICBL
report in November 2015, 396 people had been killed, 3,145 injured, and 204
affected in an unknown extent by landmines in Burma since 1999. However, the
report noted that the real figure could be much higher.